News Story

Gone are the black and white days of good vs. evil in Galactic Civilizations as Stardock are introducing "ideologies" in their place. Statistically most preferred "neutral or good," said boss Brad Wardell.

The ethical scale was 'limiting' and Wardell prefers the Sith vs. Jedi approach where it becomes a 'matter of perspective'. The sandbox is also more important than campaigns.

Wardell explains that the campaigns Stardock has featured in previous GalCivs were there merely to give an interactive backstory to the various races. The sandbox is King.

"Sandbox. Definitely the sandbox," replied Wardell when we asked what was more important.

"I mean, we provide the narrative story to help introduce players into understanding more about the different races, I mean to me that’s the point of it. In a civilization game, people already know the difference between the Mongols and Ghandi. They already know who Ghandi is, and so know what to expect from him."

"The campaign is there so that you learn that the Drengin are bloodthirsty bastards, and that the Alterians are kind of snobby but ultimately pretty benevolent, and you get an idea for what their personalities are actually like. So when you play the sandbox, you know what to expect."

However the simple labels of good and evil are now getting blurred as ideologies, so those 'bloodthirsty Drengin bastards' become 'strident isolationists' - it's all a matter of perspective, which frees players from morale trappings.

"There are a couple of things that we’ve changed to the point that you might as well call it cutting," said Wardell.

"All the GalCiv games have had this nebulous Good vs. Evil thing, which is kind of fun, but who wants to play as evil? You always end up playing as either neutral or good, at least statistically people did, and obviously some people liked playing Evil. We’ve replaced that with what we call ‘Ideologies’ instead."

"I’m a Star Wars fan, and I much prefer the Sith vs. the Jedi, and even though people are like “no, the Sith are evil!” well no, the Sith don’t see themselves as Evil. If your ideology is evil then yeah, you’re basically evil, but having Ideologies has more flexibility. It makes the game much more interesting."

Check out our full interview with Brad Wardell where we discuss a whole nebula of issues on the horizon for Galactic Civilizations III. Early access is available in alpha and beta form for those buying a Founder's package.